Sapphire Technology, one of the world’s largest maker of graphics cards, has announced that it is releasing a performance enhancing BIOS for the recently introduced Sapphire R9 290 graphics card.

Many enthusiasts and gamers like to tune the performance of their systems, and Sapphire has always provided tools for this to be achieved safely. For many current models, the Sapphire TriXX software, free to download from the company’s website, offers the ability to adjust clocks and fan speeds to optimise operation of the graphics card for different applications and save different profiles.

In the case of the new Sapphire R9 290, it is recognised that performance is capped by the system when the GPU temperature reaches its operating maximum. Therefore, by providing better cooling, maximum performance levels can be raised. As all the current products are shipping with the standard blower style cooler, this can only be achieved by increasing the fan speed to increase airflow in the cooler, with the trade-off that fan and air flow noise will also be increased.

After internal testing under various operating conditions, Sapphire is now releasing a BIOS specifically for the currently available R9 290 which operates with a different fan profile, and a maximum fan speed of 47%. The company believes this offers the user the best compromise for enhanced performance, noise and reliability. The new BIOS and Flash tool are available free to download from the company’s website.

Sapphire will be introducing new models in the R9 290 family over the coming weeks based on the company’s own designs and with innovative and enhanced cooling solutions.